Wood feeding device for bark stripping machine

ABSTRACT

A device for feeding wood to a bark stripping machine while centering the wood longitudinally with respect to the bark stripping machine, in which a pair of roller assembly units each comprising a pair of parallel arms rotatably supporting a feed roller between one ends and respectively having gears fixed to the other ends thereof are put together on one side of fixed shafts, with said feed rollers and gears of the respective units in engagement with each other, and pivotably mounted on said fixed shafts respectively with said fixed shaft extending through the centers of said gears, and another pair of similar roller assembly units are similarly put together on the other side of said fixed shafts and pivotably mounted on said fixed shaft, and further plate springs are provided to urge said engaging feed rollers each toward the center of the other one, said feed rollers being driven to cooperatively transfer the wood from one to the other side of the device to be fed to the bark stripping machine.

1451 Sept. 3, 1974 WOOD FEEDING DEVICE FOR BARK STRIPPING MACHINE [75]Inventor: Junichi Sato, Asahikawa, Japan [73] Assignee: Eno IndustriesCo. Ltd., Hokkaido,

Japan 22 Filed: July 24,1973

21 Appl. No.: 383,146

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data Oct. 31, 1972 Japan 47-108443[52] US. Cl. 226/184, 144/242 C, 144/246 F, 144/247, 226/187, 226/188,226/193 [51] Int. Cl. G03b l/46 [58] Field of Search 144/208 R, 208 E,242 R, 144/242 C, 246 R, 246 C, 246 E, 246 F, 247, 2 Z; 226/181, 184,187, 188, 193

Wigner et al. 144/247 X 3,724,518 4/1973 Zehavi et al. 144/208 E XPrimary Examiner-Andrew R. .luhasz Assistant Examiner-W. D. BrayAttorney, Agent, or Firm-Wenderoth, Lind & Ponack 5 7 ABSTRACT A devicefor feeding wood to a bark stripping machine while centering the woodlongitudinally with respect to the bark stripping machine, in which apair of roller assembly units each comprising a pair of parallel armsrotatably supporting a feed roller between one ends andrespectivelyhaving gears fixed to the other ends thereof are puttogether on one side of fixed shafts, with said feed rollers and gearsof the respective units in engagement with each other, and pivotablymounted on said fixed shafts respectively with said fixed shaftextending through the centers of said gears, and another pair of similarroller assembly units are similarly put together on the other side ofsaid fixed shafts and pivotably mounted on said fixed shaft, and furtherplate springs are provided to urge said engaging feed rollers eachtoward the center of the other one, said feed rollers being driven tocooperatively transfer the wood from one to the other side of the de-,,vice to be fed to the bark stripping machine.

3 Claims, 5 Drawing Figures m 3.883.182 SIEU 3W 3 minnow wn WOOD FEEDINGDEVICE FOR BARK STRIPPING MACHINE This invention relates to a device forfeeding wood to a bark stripping machine of the type in which the barkof a wood is stripped by stripping knives provided on the innerperipheral wall of a rotating rotary drum during passage of the woodthrough said rotary drum.

Various types of bark stripping machines are known but a bark strippingmachine of the type having knives provided on the inner wall of a rotarydrum is so constructed that the cutting portions of the knives are urgedtoward the center of the rotary drum during rotation of said rotary drumand a wood fed toward the center of the rotary drum is stripped by theknives during passage through said rotary drum. This type of machinerequires the wood to be fed always toward the center of the rotary drumduring operation and therefore, calls for a wood feeding devicespecialized for use with said particular machine.

The present invention consists in a device for feeding wood toward thecenter of such type of bark stripping machine having knives on the innerwall of a rotary drum, and an object thereof is to provide a devicewhich is capable of feeding a wood while centering the woodlongitudinally with respect to the bark stripping machine even when thediameter of the wood varies.

Another object of the invention is to provide a device which is capableof feeding a wood while centering the wood longitudinally with respectto the bark stripping machine even when the wood is crooked in shape.

Still another object of the invention is to provide a device whichserves as a feeding device when provided on the front side of the barkstripping machine and as a drawing device when provided on the back sideof the machine, and enables the bark stripping efficiency of the machineto be enhanced when provided on each side of the machine.

FIG. 1 is a front elevational view of the entire wood feeding deviceaccording to the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along the line II-II of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a side elevational view of the entire device;

FIG. 4 is a side elevational view of the feed roller; and

FIG. 5 is a perspective view illustrating the engagement of theinterlocking gears.

As stated, the wood feeding device of the invention can be used as afeeding device when provided on the front side of the bark strippingmachine and as a stripped wood drawing device when provided on the backside of the machine. However, the device will be described herein withreference to the drawings as being provided on the feeding side of themachine for the sake of description.

In thedrawings, reference numerals l, 2 designate feed rollers havingtheir shafts 3, 4 respectively journaled in bearings 5, 6 fixed at oneends of arms 7, 8.

i The arms 7, 8 respectively have interlocking gears 9, l0

fixed to the other ends thereof. Such arms are provided on both sides ofeach feed roller to rotatably support said feed roller. Since the rangeof angular displacement of the interlocking gears is small, gears of atype having gear teeth only at a limited portion of the peripheral edgethereof, as shown, may be used for these interlocking gears. Each of thefeed rollers 1, 2, as seen in FIG. 4, is reduced in diameter at thecentral portion 1a as viewed in a direction perpendicular to the axis ofthe roller. Further, in order to facilitate the feeding of wood, eachroller is made up of plate members 11, 11 arranged obliquely and eachhaving a knurled outer edge 11a.

The two arms, the feed rollers rotatably supported between one ends ofsaid arms and the fixed gears provided at the other ends of said arms,constitute a roller assembly unit. A pair of the roller assembly unitsare put together vertically symmetrically in such a manner that the feedrollers l, 2 of the respective units are in contact with each other andthe interlocking gears 9, 10 thereof are in meshing engagement with eachother, as best shown in FIG. 5, and are pivotably mounted on shafts 12,13, fixed to a machine frame 14, respectively with said shafts extendingthrough the centers of said gears 9, 10. Thus, it will be seen that thefeed rollers 1, 2 can make a pivotal movement about the shafts l2, 13respectively. Since the interlocking, gears 9, 10 are not fixed to theshafts 12, 13, they are freely rotatable about said shafts.

The state of the roller assembly units pivotably mounted on the machineframe 14 in the manner described is shown at the left half portions ofFIGS. 1 and 5. Another pair of similar roller assembly units aresimilarly put together and pivotably mounted on the machine framev onthe other side of the shafts 12, 13. Namely, roller assembly unitsrespectively comprising feed rollers 15, 16 of the. same construction asthe aforesaid rollers l, 2, two parallel arms 21, 22 rotatablysupporting shafts 17, 18 of said rollers l5, 16 through bearings 19, 20fixed at one ends of said arms and gears 23, 24 fixed to the other endsof said arms, are put together with said rollers l5, 16 in contact witheach other and said gears 23, 24 in meshing engagement with each other,and pivotably mounted on the shafts 12, 13 respectively, in the samemanner as described above. The gears 23, 24 are freely rotatable 'on theshafts 12, 13 respectively and the feed rollers 15, 16 are arranged insymmetrical relation with the feed rollers 1, 2 with respect to theshafts 12, 13.

The gears 9, 10 of the arms 7, Sand the gears 23, 24 of thearms 21, 22are mounted on the shafts l2, 13 at different locations, and the gears9, 23 are mounted on the shaft 12 and the gears 10, 24 on the shaft 13.The relative position of these gears as mounted on the shafts will beunderstood from FIG. 5.

The shafts 3, 4, 17, 18 of the feed rollers l, 2, 15, 16 are extended atone ends outwardly through the respective bearings and have sprockets25, 26, 27, 28 mounted on the outwardly projecting ends thereofrespectively. On the other hand, the shafts 12, 13 respectively havesprockets 29, 30 rotatably mounted at one ends thereof, andinterrneshing gears 35, 36 are fixedly mounted on a common boss of thesprockets 29, 30 respectively. Thus, it will be understood that, wheneither one of the sprockets 29, 30 is rotates, all of the four feedrollers are rotated concurrently.

A motor 37 for operating this device is mounted on a mounting block 14afixed to the machine frame 14. The drive shaft of the motor 37 has asprocket mounted thereon and a chain 39 is engaged around said sprocketand a sprocket 38 which is mounted on the common boss of .the sprockets30 and gear 36, rotatably mounted on the shaft 13, for rotation withsaid sprockets and gear.

In the invention, it is essential that the feed rollers 1, 2 and 5, 6are respectively constantly held in contact with each other, and to thisend, plate springs 40, 41 are provided, respectively urging the arms 7,21 and 8, 22, extending from the shafts 12, 13 in opposite directions toeach other, toward each other. These plate springs 40, 41 are connectedat their centers to the ma chine frame 14 by means of fittings 42, 43respectively.

When the feed roller 1 is rotating in a counterclockwise direction asviewed in FIG. 1, upon energization of the motor 37, a wood is suppliedfrom the left side of the device also as viewed in FIG. 1. Therefore,the bark stripping machine is provided successive to the right hand feedrollers 15, 16, and the device of the invention is further provided onthe back side of said bark stripping machine adjacent thereto.

The feeding device of the invention operates in the following manner:Namely, when the motor 37 is set in motion, the drive of the motor istransmitted through the chain 39, the sprocket 38, the sprockets 30,chains 32, 34 to the feed rollers 2, 16 to drive the same, and throughthe chain 39, the sprocket 38, the gears 36, 35, the sprockets 29,chains 31, 33 to the feed rollers 1, to drive the same. A wood suppliedto the junction of the engaging feed rollers l, 2, therefore, is carriedforward by said feed rollers while forcing the feed rollers outwardlyagainst the biasing forces of the springs 40, 41.

The two upper and lower feed rollers 1, 2 are interconnected through theintermeshing interlocking gears 9, 10 fixed to the arms 7, 8, so thatwhen the feed roller 1 is displaced upwardly, the feed roller 2 is alsodisplaced downwardly by the same amount. Thus, it becomes possible totransfer the wood while maintaining the center of the wood at a fixedposition, even when the diameter of the wood varies continuously overthe length of said wood.

The wood having once been clamped between the feed rollers l, 2 isforced toward the right side as viewed in FIG. 1, as said feed rollersare rotating. When the wood reaches the positions of the feed rollers15, 16, it is moved forward by said feed rollers while expanding therollers, and fed to the bark stripping machine. The plate springs 40, 41prevent the lower feed rollers 2, 16 from sagging under the weight ofthe wood, during passage of the wood through the subject feeding device.Namely, the plate springs 40, 41 are arranged respectively to act onthose portions of the arms 7, 21 and 8, 22 where the feed rollers aresupported, so as to hold the lower arms 8,22 against pivotal movementabout the shaft 13.

As described hereinbefore, the feeding device of the invention iscapable of transferring a wood in the longitudinal direction whilemaintaining the center of the wood at a fixed position even when thediameter of the wood varies, and therefore, is highly adapted for usewith a bark stripping machine of the type having knives along the innerwall of a rotary drum, for feeding wood toward the center of said rotarydrum.

' I claim:

1. A device for feeding wood to a bark stripping machine whilemaintaining the longitudinal center of the wood to be fed in a fixedposition, comprising a pair of roller assembly units, each having a pairof parallel arms rotatably supporting a feed roller between one ends andrespectively having gears fixed to the other ends thereof; said rollerassembly units being put together on one side of fixed shafts with saidfeed rollers in contact with each other and said gears in meshingengagement with each other, and being pivotably mounted on said fixedshafts with the latter extending through the centers of said gears;another pair of similar roller assembly units similarly put together onthe other side of said fixed shafts and pivotably mounted on said fixedshafts respectively; plate springs urging the cooperating ones of saidfeed rollers into engagement with each other; and means for driving saidfeed rollers to transfer the wood longitudinally from one to the otherside of the device.

2. A feeding device according to claim 1, wherein each of said feedrollers is reduced in diameter at the central portion thereof as viewedin a direction prependicular to the axis of said roller.

3. A feeding device according to claim 1, wherein each of said feedrollers is reduced in diameter at the central portion thereof as viewedin a direction perpendicular to the axis of said roller and has aknurled surface.

1. A device for feeding wood to a bark stripping machine whilemaintaining the longitudinal center of the wood to be fed in a fixedposition, comprising a pair of roller assembly units, each having a pairof parallel arms rotatably supporting a feed roller between one ends andrespectively having gears fixed to the other ends thereof; said rollerassembly units being put together on one side of fixed shafts with saidfeed rollers in contaCt with each other and said gears in meshingengagement with each other, and being pivotably mounted on said fixedshafts with the latter extending through the centers of said gears;another pair of similar roller assembly units similarly put together onthe other side of said fixed shafts and pivotably mounted on said fixedshafts respectively; plate springs urging the cooperating ones of saidfeed rollers into engagement with each other; and means for driving saidfeed rollers to transfer the wood longitudinally from one to the otherside of the device.
 2. A feeding device according to claim 1, whereineach of said feed rollers is reduced in diameter at the central portionthereof as viewed in a direction prependicular to the axis of saidroller.
 3. A feeding device according to claim 1, wherein each of saidfeed rollers is reduced in diameter at the central portion thereof asviewed in a direction perpendicular to the axis of said roller and has aknurled surface.